From Second Amendment to assault weapons ban: A look at U.S. gun laws

From The CNN Political Unit

Updated 3:02 PM ET, Mon January 28, 2013

Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

1966: Univ. of Texas tower – The University of Texas- Austin clock tower shooter, 25-year-old Charles Joseph Whitman, killed 16 and wounded at least 30 people from his perch above the university grounds.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

1981: Ronald Reagan assassination attempt – John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate President Ronald Reagan in front of the Washington Hilton. Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, was wounded and paralyzed in the attack. The attack brought gun control to the forefront of the debate and was in part the reason that Reagan later endorsed the Brady Bill, which established a national system for background checks and a five-day waiting period after purchasing a handgun. The provision that compels state and local governments to perform background checks was declared unconstitutional in 1996.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

1991: Luby's cafeteria in Texas – George Hennard, 35, drove a pickup truck into a Luby's cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, fatally shot 23 people and wounded more than 20 others before killing himself.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

1999: Columbine High School – Columbine High School shooters Eric Harris, left, and Dylan Klebold examine a sawed-off shotgun at a makeshift shooting range March 6, 1999, in Douglas County, Colorado. A month later, the high school seniors opened fire on students and teachers in classrooms, the cafeteria and the library, killing 13 people and wounding 23 others.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

2007: Virginia Tech University – On the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, Virginia, 23-year-old student Seung-Hui Cho went on a shooting rampage, killing 32 people in two locations and wounding an undetermined number of others. Cho later killed himself.

2009: Binghamton, New York – Jiverly Antares Wong walked into an American Civic Association center, gunning down 14 people and wounding four.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

2011: Tucson, Arizona, Safeway supermarket – Jared Lee Loughner opened fire on a "Congress on your Corner" event held by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords. The attack killed six and wounded more than a dozen people including the congresswoman, who barely survived a gunshot wound to the head.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

2012: Aurora movie theater – James Holmes, 24, allegedly killed 12 people and wounded almost 60 others during a midnight showing of the Batman movie, "The Dark Knight Rises," at an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater.

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Mass shootings: A timeline of legislation10 photos

2012: Sandy Hook Elementary School – A man comforts a young boy after the funeral for Jack Pinto, 6, one of the children killed when Adam Lanza stormed their elementary school and claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults after killing his mother. Lanza turned the gun on himself as police closed in.

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Story highlights

The Second Amendment gave Americans the right to bear arms in 1791

Congress addressed gun violence in the 1930s in reaction to organized crime

Political assassinations in the 1960s led to the Gun Control Act of 1968

Assault weapons ban in 1994 expired a decade later

Mass shootings in 2012 reignited the debate over legislation to combat gun violence. Here's a look at laws already on the books in the United States dealing with firearms.

1791 -- Second Amendment: Congress ratifies the Second Amendment to the Constitution, which reads that "A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."

1934 -- National Firearms Act: The law was designed to make it difficult to obtain especially lethal guns. These would include preferred weapons of the era's gangsters, like sawed-off long rifles or shotguns and machine guns. It also regulated specialty weapons concealed in canes, pens or other items.

1968 -- Gun Control Act of 1968: Following the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, Congress passed this law prohibiting convicted felons from possessing firearms. It also required licenses to trade in guns and created procedures to track serial numbers and control imports.

1984-1986 -- Comprehensive Crime Control Act and the Armed Career Criminal Act: These laws enhanced penalties for using or carrying firearms while committing serious drug offenses, for felons with three prior convictions of violent crimes or drug offenses, for using short-barreled rifles and shotguns and semiautomatic weapons and for automatic weapons or those equipped with a silencer.

1986 -- The Firearms Owners' Protection Act of 1986: Allowed licensed dealers to operate outside of their normal places of business, like gun shows, and excluded hobbyists or collectors from some regulations. It permitted sales of ammunition without a license, allowed convicted felons to obtain guns if their civil rights were restored after prison, and banned the production of machine guns for civilian use. It also made it illegal for anyone to sell firearms to those prohibited from owning them.

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1994 -- Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act: Increased fees and required photographs and fingerprints to obtain a dealer's license.

1994 -- Youth Handgun Safety Act: Banned possession of handguns by those under 18 and prohibited adults from transferring them to juveniles.

1994 -- Assault weapon ban: The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act made it unlawful, with a few exceptions, to make, transfer, or possess semiautomatic assault weapons. It also made it illegal to possess large capacity magazines that held more than 10 rounds. The law expired in 2004.

Gun rights and gun control advocates largely agree there should be restrictions on mentally ill people obtaining firearms. The case of Myron Fletcher illustrates how difficult it is to put that into practice.

Six months after a gunman burst into a Newtown, Connecticut, elementary school and slaughtered 20 children and killed six others, promises of stricter national gun control laws remain largely unfulfilled.

Next time there's a mass shooting, don't jump to blame the National Rifle Association and lax gun laws. Look first at the shooter and the mental health services he did or didn't get, and the commitment laws in the state where the shooting took place.

The sign at the door of the Colt factory displays a gun with a slash through it: "No loaded or unauthorized firearms beyond this point." Understandable for workers at a plant, but also a bit ironic, considering one of the largest arsenals in America lies just beyond.

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As Congress grapples with major gun control legislation proposals, brothers and sisters, mothers, fathers and children write about the people they loved and lost to gun violence and how it changed their lives.